The Saturday Morning Newsletter #95
Missing Your Childhood or the Future You Imagined, Space Permanently Changes the Human Body, and The Secrets of the Turf Master
This Week I’m Tracking: 12 developments across the sectors shaping our future
Reading Time: 5 minutes of curated insights
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Let’s dive in.
#1: Lightbringer
Description: Lightbringer is a legal-tech provider focused on patents.
Why Is This Company Interesting? Lightbringer recently raised $10M in venture capital funding. Lightbringer’s patent platform enables legal professionals to file faster at a lower cost. Additionally, Lightbringer’s platform enables industry professionals across tech, industrials, and other sectors to file their first patents and scale their portfolios seamlessly, creating a curated, securely protected intellectual property portfolio. You don’t need to know anything about intellectual property law to use their service.
#2: Endurance Energy
Description: Endurance Energy is a developer of deep-ocean geothermal energy.
Why Is This Company Interesting? Endurance Energy recently raised $54M in venture capital funding. Small and remote islands are heavily reliant on imported fossil fuels for their energy. Energy can cost up to 7x as much as on the nearby mainland. Offshore geothermal energy is the solution that Endurance Energy is striving to build. Seafloor hydrothermal generators set along the Ring of Fire can easily deliver a GW of baseload power.
#3: NS/TX
Description: NS/TX is a developer of plant-based meat and seafood.
Why Is This Company Interesting? NS/TX recently raised $10.5M in venture capital funding. NS/TX is striving to create a meat-like product that perfectly mimics the textures and tastes of salmon and beef. They engineer muscles from plant materials, combining and arranging them to produce any product they want, mimicking any species on the market today. In the world of plant-based meat, NS/TX stands out as an innovator.
#4: Critical Energy
Description: Critical Energy is a developer of modular turbines for geothermal energy.
Why Is This Company Interesting? Critical Energy recently raised $19M in venture capital funding. Critical Energy is building modular power generation systems. These are factory-made plants that convert heat into electricity, delivered in standard shipping containers and installed in weeks. These units are adaptable to changing input conditions and resource constraints, using vaporized working fluids to generate head and electricity.
#5: Vaja
Description: Vaja is a developer and supplier of solar tracking systems.
Why Is This Company Interesting? Vaja recently raised $3.6M in venture capital funding. Vaja has built a proprietary solar tracking system that follows the sun’s trajectory to maximize energy output, increasing revenue from solar panels by 30-40%. This ensures continued profitability for many of the new solar farms popping up around the world. They have also built systems optimized for individual and residential solar panels that provide similar benefits.
The Guardian: World’s First Wind-Powered Underwater Datacenter Starts in China
The Shanghai Lingang undersea data center project was recently completed and is located more than 6 miles off the coast of China. The datacenter is submerged 10 meters below the surface and powered by renewable energy. Estimates put the datacenter as reducing power consumption by more than 20% compared to land-based datacenters.
The New York Times: The Secrets of a Soccer-Turf Master
FIFA brought in John Sorochan, an expert in turf grass science and management, to level the playing field for the 2026 World Cup to a consistently high standard. He carefully studied how athletes interact with each field’s surface, measuring recoil, traction, and other factors. This enabled them to create what they believe is the “perfect” grass product for the players this summer.
BGR: DNA Study Reveals Space Permanently Changes the Human Body
Astronauts in space routinely lose muscle but grow taller. Interestingly, a recent study found that astronauts also age more slowly, exhibiting subtle differences from Earth-bound peers. This means if they were to stay in space longer, there may be more interesting long-term consequences.
PitchBook: When Headline Valuations Aren’t What They Seem
Not every investor in every fundraising round pays the same price. Investors are using multi-tranche rounds in which one tranche values the company at an aggressive premium, and the rest is much more realistic. Often now, some VCs are squeezing into rounds by paying a premium, especially in the age of AI.
ManagingIP: AI and the Future of IP Law
AI is reshaping intellectual property every day. It is simultaneously a legal controversy and an increasingly critical tool for professionals. There are many controversies: who owns inventions, how copyright and training data work, and how governance and trade secrets integrate. For IP professionals and those casually looking at the space, AI’s interactions with the legal sector will be paramount to understanding our future.
Quartz: 15 Philosophers and the One Idea That Made Them Famous
This author lists out 15 famous philosophers and the one idea that made them famous—what they brought to the world. For instance, Aristotle brought the golden mean and virtue ethics, and John Locke brought the social contract and natural rights. It’s worth a read if you’re a fan of impressive philosophers or simply want to learn more.
Reddit: Some People Miss Their Childhood. Others Miss the Future They Imagined When They Were Children.
I thought this was an interesting perspective I hadn’t fully considered regarding childhood nostalgia.
See, when we’re children, we often think that the world is a big, shiny place where we can all be happy and successful, and that that’s all there is (if your childhood wasn’t like this, I’m so sorry for you and hope you the best now).
Do you miss that, or do you miss the present that once was, the times on the playground, the times galloping around the neighborhood, the times eating food in various shapes, the times playing just to play?
I think I often miss a bit of both. Life was so simple then. Now, it’s a bit more complicated.
What do you miss?
That’s a wrap on this week’s roundup.
Drew Jackson
Founder & Writer
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Next Deep Dive: Fluctuat Nec Mergitur - June 24th, 2026
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